Anyone try one of these yet? Just curious, as people are making a big deal of them coming out. Me personally, the only Line 6 item i ever tried in my 40 years of being a guitar player was a Verbzilla. I'm sure the 11R has to be better

I'm planning on buying the HD 500 soon and doing a comparison. I'm impressed with what I've read so far. Even though I'll be comparing, I don't think either product is necessarily better or worse - just different. Each one will have pros and cons.

Line 6 stuff has always struck me as strong in some of the metal/Steve Vai stuff and weak in the clean/semi-dirty department. They have some really nice stereo chorus/delays and wahs and other effects I find pretty useless.

Line 6 hasn't done anything new in a long time, so I'm pleased to see they're still trying to raise the bar.

Thanks Justin. Can;t wait to hear your take. Hopefully they worked on the cleans/semi dirty tones. It looks like a cool little unit. I al;ways loved modelers, even though i never master any of them. What am i doing with a Axe Fx. i'll never know. I'm waiting to see what avid will do for the 11R when they do a serious updates with new models/fx etc...

I've been reading through a bunch of threads over at TGP, and my perception is that the people really digging the HD stuff are rather inexperienced. Now, I could be completely wrong, but that is my perception.

Many of the comments are coming from people with very few total TGP posts, and many are making comparisons to software modelers. Many make conclusion such as "blown away" or something like "I've never heard a modeler do that before." I also did not see very many comparisons with the 11R or AxeFX. It seems as though quite a few people are in awe of the HD stuff have never tried either.

So, I am very skeptical. I am open minded and so I am curious to see Justin's review here. In my humble opinion, I am just not hearing anything new or exciting with this Line 6 offering.

The fact that it is a floorboard model will likely appeal to some. What is it that the HD has that as some people are saying is light years ahead of any other modeler?

Simply my humble opinion of course.

MY friend Greg (GASP100) has owned all 3 many times too. He thinks it compares with the axe fx, but i seen him 360 many times before. From the clip I heard him do, the Deluxe Reverb sounded sweet, but the Delay sounded like shit. To me it couldn't had sounded more digital. Not sure if thats what he was after, but it turned me off right away. The Axe and 11R delay destoyed it IMO. Guarantee Greg will 360 any week now...Watch

Traditionally with Line 6 I've thought their heavy metal sounds are pretty good but not so much their clean sounds. Reverb is a deceptive thing because honestly, for recording I would want to record dry and add it later. What I really listen for is air, cabinet, tubes, feedback and overall how does it feel when I hit the strings/sensitivity. Almost anything can be made to sound good when you go to mix.

Check this out...

That's hilarious!!!

Yes, I am familiar with Greg (GASP100). He flips more gear than Mickey D's flips burgers! He has been through the AxeFx multiple times, and I think he is on his second or third go around with the 11R. It seems like he is never quite happy with anything he tries for some reason. I don't know what kind of an issue he has that he has not been able to solve with any gear. I do wish him the best and I hope he finds tone nirvana someday.

Justin, thanks for the video. I saw that one discussed as well, and it appeared that quite a few people have issues with the quality of the AxeFx part of that clip. I listened to it, and while not my style of music (I would not know a good NuMetal guitar tone if it smacked me in the face!) I think the AxeFx tone was better.

My style of music is blues and blues-based rock (BB King, Clapton, MSG/UFO, Free, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Foreigner, AC/DC, Whitesnake, Y&T, Hendrix, Aerosmith, Badlands, Cinderella, Tesla, etc.). I care about how a tone cleans up after the volume knob is rolled down. I care about how tone changes the more I did in with my pick. I care about dynamics and the woody character of a guitar that comes through. So, in short, a Nu Metal or Thrash Metal type of demo does not help me. For some, I think that demo might be very worthwhile.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out after the honeymoon period wears off. I will be interested to check out more clips, and I hope some are done that hit my tone targets.

Thanks again Justin for sharing that video with us here.

Thanks but I didn't make that video, I just found it on YouTube and posted it here. My Pod HD 500 is on order, should have it next week. If I don't like it, I'll return it but for $450 shipped free from musiciansfriend (after 10% off Columbus Day discount - code is "NINA"), I say why not give her a whirl. I already own a Variax 300 guitar and Pod XT Live pedal so what's one more toy to have around the studio.

The clips I've heard so far do sound better than their last generation (especially the /13 and other breakup clips) and I suspect the HD500 is pretty good to play in person. That's a cool vid, though I'm with Judge there in that I find it hard to assess tone with that level of gain and that kind of playing (though I do prefer the Axe FX versions in that particular clip).

I just sold my X3 Live with the intention of picking up either the HD500 or 11r. The X3L I had gave some pretty good recorded sounds but wasn't quite there on the touch response / feel side..at least not enough to make it my main playing "amp". If they've made even a fairly modest improvement to it though, that might be enough for to sell me on the new one (I'm hoping to do a side by side comparrison to the 11 in the store).

i thought the line6 was more present in the mids. the axe-fx was too scooped. if i had to chose one to record with right now it would be the line6.

the axe-fx did have some desirable tones though.